The Ruler of Ruin

I opened my eyes and groaned. It hadn’t all been a bad dream, I remained in the cavern I’d sealed with a wall. The scent of the carcasses of the psychic crabs assaulted my nose. It was a pungent briny smell, with a hint of ammonia, a dash of decay, and the terrible odor of spoiled sea food. It made me want to vomit. I had to swallow a few times and focus on blocking the vile smell.

“You were supposed to have rested,” Arx Maxima said. Arx Maxima’s tiny crystal polyhedron darted around in the air to face me directly while she chided me.

“I slept, didn’t I? What are you, my mom?” I snapped at Arx Maxima before I could reign in my tongue. I took a deep breath. “You didn’t warn me I could leave my body on accident, or that dreaming was dangerous. I don’t mean to snap, but that was quite the experience.”

“Tell me what happened.” Arx Maxima demanded.

So, I told her about seeing the dark glade, Havenstone, my parents, Etienne burning me, Corvusol, and Katrina. I didn’t need to double or triple check, I had felt the newly enkindled bindings to Katrina since I woke up. I also had gained the ability to summon Katrina.

“You bound a concept while in your Astral Form? Few Enkindlers are capable of that. It will make you a highly compensated person, if you sell your services. As for your brother and Mithras, do you intend to pursue saving him as a future objective?” Arx Maxima might as well be talking about if I wanted fish or steak for dinner. Emotion didn’t seem to be a strong suit for her.

“I’d like to, if we can. I don’t like the idea of Etienne being mind controlled by that asshole. Do you think we can pull it off?” I had no idea if it were possible. Corvusol wasn’t the most reliable source for information.

“All things are possible,” Arx Maxima informed me. She didn’t sound convinced.

“So, what do we do now? Did I make a mistake when I enkindled Katrina?” Arx Maxima wasn’t pulling her punches, so I wanted the straight answer.

“Katrina could prove to be a strong deterrent. Your ability to summon a realm obliterating storm means you have the ultimate advantage when cornered. It will alienate you from some, but as far as an offensive concept goes, it is an exceptionally strong one if you are willing to cause collateral damage.”

“Why do I have to cause collateral damage? Can’t I just control it?” Magic was supposed to do what you wanted it to do, not the other way around.

“Katrina is primal oblivion, an evolution of a component of the Cosmogenesis Engine that I used to prepare the Universe for Oneness. Conceptually, there is little room for controlled destruction with the very nature of Katrina. Your first ability, Call Storm, summons Katrina. It does not allow you to control the storm. It is a set-up ability, once deployed the other abilities you manifest through the concept of Katrina will be more powerful.”

“So, what? I’ll never be able to control it?” I groaned.

“Someday, possibly. With the proper delving of the concepts of Katrina, and your mastery of my own concepts, you could, eventually, control Katrina. Additionally, the deterrence value of such a concept will prevent greedy Mistlords from being too egregious in their attempts to take advantage of a new, lower rank Enkindler. Therefore, I approve of your decision.” Arx Maxima didn’t sound proud of me. She had run the numbers, as she saw them, and decided it wasn’t going to interfere with her plans or would interfere less than it might help.

“Okay. So, where do we go from here? Don’t suppose you found any clothes while I slept?” I wanted clothes. Anything would be better than being naked. Armor would be best.

“I did not.” Arx Maxima said.

“So, what now?” I looked at the sole exit from the cavern, blocked by the wall I had constructed earlier.

“Now, you must enkindle your essence. With a concept bound to each attribute, you will transition from Ruby to Imperial Topaz. With the power increase, you will cut your way to freedom. I will guide you to the nearest intelligent life, but it will be up to you to overcome the threats along the way. Are you prepared to bind me to your essence, Emery?”

I had questions, but Arx Maxima seemed impatient to get the show on the road. Too bad for her, I was the one with arms and legs.

“Ruby? Imperial Topaz?” I summoned a smaller wall than the first one, a three foot high and four foot long wall. Like the first, it was a foot thick, and perfect for sitting on. I wasn’t about to flop onto the ground with all the crab carcasses.

“Ruby is the first rank of power. When one awakens their first concept they join the ranks of ruby. To progress beyond Ruby requires only four things: enkindling four concepts. This allows you to reach the rank of Imperial Topaz. To reach the third rank, Citrine, you must awaken all five abilities of each of your four concepts. For non-enkindlers, the climb to Topaz is a grueling one. For Enkindlers, or those able to pay them, the rank of ruby could be bypassed in a single day.”

“That’s really unfair, isn’t it?” I asked. Why should a lucky few have so much power, and have such an easier time to reach it?

“Life is not fair, Emery. Is it fair that you struggled under the yoke of a magic obsessed society, simply because you draw power from another source? Is it fair that some are born rich, and others poor? If you wish to be a force of equity, then be so. You are an Enkindler, able to raise the weak to the strong. Will you uplift everyone you meet? Will you only empower those who can pay you, or who make you happy? Or will you decide that none are worth your time, and focus on saving your brother?”

Arx Maxima really didn’t care, I realized. She had said she was impartial regarding morality, but it sunk in a little bit how little she cared about living things. She had an agenda, and she wanted that agenda met. I had my own agenda now, kind of, and I wanted it met. How I reached my goal suddenly seemed like a moral quandary. Should I use people, or work with them? Go it alone and focus only on my own power, or try to gather like minded people to build… something?

“What concept are we binding to my essence again?” I wondered. I couldn’t recall if Maxima had said, but it had been an eventful day since I left Havenstone. Already, I had gained three powerful concepts – Citadel, Envoy, and Katrina.

“Administrator.”

The word pulled me into the vast field of stars that so many of the memories or visions involving Arx Maxima involved. The conferred knowledge of Aurelian gave me names for the phenomenon I saw. Quasars. Black Holes. Neutron Stars. Supernova. Nebula.

“What did you administrate?”

“Everything,” Arx Maxima answered pridefully. “I was meant to be the vessel of Cosmogenesis, a new order for all of existence.”

We drifted through the stars and systems, until Arx Maxima filled the horizon. Her scale was beyond my ability to truly comprehend. When I say she was big, I mean, bigger than galaxies. And before her, the existence became the void behind her. An empty blackness with no lights, no matter, nothing at all remained in her wake, for all energy, all matter, was captured and reforged, which made the immense stellar citadel even larger.

My vision focused on a speck of rock. Closer, and closer, until I could see the individual grains, then even closer, to see smaller structures. The terminology for what I was being shown eluded me, I couldn’t tell you what the names for any of it were, even the gifted knowledge of Aurelian left me without any labels other than atoms.

This scene played out repeatedly, and I realized that Arx Maxima was showing me the basic forces of existence. Weird letters and numbers I didn’t understand floated through my mind, until my vision flooded with so much math I was about to suffocate from all the equations, formulas, and strange things called wavefunctions. The stream of information broke apart, and a woman looked at me. I knew, immediately, this was Arx Maxima. She was a hologram of blue light, with braided hair, and the symbol of her purpose, the cosmic spiral, a representation of Cosmogenesis, the continuous and dynamic recreation of reality.

I copied the face and cosmic spiral of Arx Maxima to my essence attribute and enkindled it. My mind shifted slightly to the left, and the world took on a new sheen, even as power burgeoned in me, the physical capabilities of someone of the rank of Imperial Topaz were mine, and it felt amazing. I had been in great shape at the Academy, but with the addition of each concept my physiology had been enhanced. If I’d had this kind of power at the Havenstone Academy, I would’ve cruised through as valedictorian with only a fraction of the effort I had expended to get the number two spot.

“Open your eyes. As an Administrator the first gift is Vector Sense. By seeing, touching, and interacting with the forces of the world you will come to be able to manipulate their being, and control the forces they are subjected to.”

I warily opened my eyes. The first thing my gaze fell upon was a mindcrab carcass. Dead and still, the three-dimensional chart that manifest near it was very boring. Intuitively, I knew I’d be able to modify the motion, eventually, but for now all I could see was the constant application of gravity, and the zero-sum of its motion, neither of which had an amplitude. My gaze fell across multiple x-y-z renderings for every object I looked at.

“I don’t want to sound ungrateful, Arx Maxima, but I can’t actually do anything with this, can I?” I asked tentatively, uncertain.

“It is the foundation upon which the other four abilities you unlock will be built upon. The more you understand the forces now, the easier time you will have manipulating them later.”

It sounded like a way to get me to shut up for now, but I didn’t have any real leg to stand on in the argument. I felt a little cheated that only one of my four powers really was useful, the ability to summon Delerium of Ruin. I still had no pants and no long-range attacks. Not the greatest situation to be in, when you were deep in the mists and alone.

“Cut down the wall blocking the exit. It’s time to fight your way past the first obstacle, the Mindcrab Brood. Based on your earlier showing, they should be no problem. The Mindcrab Broodmother will challenge you, and test your strength, speed, and ingenuity. Would you like tactical advice, or do you wish to learn on your own?” Arx Maxima was testing me, I was certain of it. This felt like a trick question.

“I’ve got this. I’m way stronger, faster, and I have a weapon that can kill magic beasts. If the Dustwalkers can do it, and I’m ahead of most of them now, I don’t see why I can’t do it.”

Arx Maxima hummed judgmentally in my mind but didn’t say anything. It was a pleasant background sound to listen to, before I took Delerium of Ruin and in one slash cut the wall blocking the exit. The blade of the spear cut through the wall without issue, then toppled into two distinct pieces.

“What’re a few crabs going to be compared to rock?” I laughed.